Night Lights
by Dudekmc123
Summary: The Golden Pair takes an evening stroll and Eiji muses about the world. One-shot. Slightly shonen-ai ?


_A short idea that hit me long ago when I read about a translation of one of the PairPuri fanbooks for the New Prince of Tennis, number 4 specifically because it focused on Eiji and Niou. I saw Eiji's schedule and apparently he goes for walks at night and I was like "hey, what if Oishi tagged along" and thus this ended up popping into my mind and I had to write it down :)_

_For the most part I like how this fic came out, but some parts of it are meh, well I edited it as best I could before posting, enjoy~!_

**Night Lights**

A Golden Pair One-shot

**Word Count:** 1,259  
><strong>Rating:<strong> K  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Friendship/General (slightly shonen-ai if you wanna take it that way?)  
><strong>Summary:<strong> The Golden Pair takes an evening stroll and Eiji muses about the world.

"Eiji, I think we should go back now. We've been walking for a while and it's getting late."

"Mou, Oishi, that's like the fifth time you've said that to me. _Relax_, seriously, its way too early to head back now! Geez, you're running all the fun I normally have on my evening walks."

"Evening walks" is what Eiji called randomly leaving the house around 9 pm and taking off, for what seemed longer than a thirty minute stroll, to absolutely nowhere. It was only an activity that he had picked up on recently, but it looked like it was already part of the redhead's routine seeing as how this was the third time Oishi had joined him this week. However, he had a serious opposition to these "walks", for it generally made him uncomfortable at the thought that his best-friend was wandering the streets alone at these dark hours and could possibly end up victim of kidnapping or god knows what one day.

He could, in fact, start an argument right here— he had wanted to many times during these walks with Eiji —but always decided against it out of fear that he'd get Eiji so mad that he'd do something rash, like try to run away, and chasing after the acrobat in the dead night was about the last thing he wanted to do at the moment. Thus, he resolved to talk about this issue with his partner later, although he usually ended up forgetting until the next time they went walking and the cycle would start all over again.

"Wow! Oishi, come look!" The redhead exclaimed enthusiastically, practically leaning over the rails of the bridge they had been crossing.

He followed suit and walked over. Oishi found himself facing the scenery of a thousand lights all ranging in various shapes and forms, glowing and floating, blinking all around them. It was the lights of the city, of buildings tall and old, short and new, and never had they looked so blinding.

"I didn't know there were these many lights in the city." Eiji squinted as he raised a hand over his forehead, almost in salute, eyes straining to see more in the distance. "Oh, and they go on for miles and miles! Wow… so many buildings…"

Oishi couldn't help smiling in amusement at his friend as he indulged in his surroundings. This was one of the things he liked about Eiji anyway, how he'd take a moment once in a while to take a step back and view the world as it is and appreciate the simple details that many failed to notice due to their frantic lives. In a way, he thought, it was Eiji's method in reminding himself that he was still living— though he wasn't entirely sure if that's what the other thought during times like these. He probably should ask…

"Neh, Oishi, the world is so big, huh?" Eiji's voice called him out from his thoughts.

"Yeah," he replied after a slight pause in thought, a momentary setback because he had to think after being pulled out of hazy ponderings.

"There are so many buildings and animals and trees and cities and— hey, do you know how many people there are in the world exactly?" The question sprouted spontaneously and Eiji turned slightly, watching his partner expectantly in hope of a direct answer.

"Ah well, Eiji, you know I don't exactly know everything don't you?"

"But you're Oishi, you do know everything! You're _supposed_ to, nya." Eiji whined with a pout.

The taller let out a sigh though a smile showed lightly across his lips, "Well, if you want a rough estimate it's around six billion, but that's about all I can give you."

"S-s-six billon?" Eiji gaped as he stared back out at the city with wide eyes. "Okay Oishi, I knew there were lots of people in the world but I didn't think there was that much. Oh man, we keep growing and growing— what if one day there will be too many people to live on Earth? Will we go to the Moon Oishi? Or Mars? Oh! What if we end up building little colonies on all the planets in the sky?"

"Hold up Eiji, now you're getting a little too carried away. Maybe you need to tone it down on the sci-fi movies." Oishi cut in on Eiji's rant when it began to reach the point of him describing an epic space war that stretched over decades and a gazillion galaxies galore.

Eiji followed with protest, arguing that it "could too happen" and telling him that even he would agree if he ever took the time to watch a couple of films himself. Oishi could've gotten back at him by explaining it was "Hollywood" and that many facts were usually extremely exaggerated, but he let it go and simply gave in with a nod. The redhead caught onto this façade fast and punched the other lightly, snorting at the vice captain for mocking him and not taking him seriously, yet grinning at the same time.

It didn't take long for Eiji to settle into a pleasant silence afterwards and Oishi was glad for it, it seemed that the redhead wasn't in the mood for picking a fight this evening either.

The taller was just delighting in the feeling of the fresh autumn breeze brushing across his cheeks and the slight pressure of warmth from Eiji's shoulder leaning against him on his left arm when the acrobat spoke. "You know… somehow I feel lucky."

Oishi peered down at him, a questioning expression on his face urging his doubles partner to continue speaking. "Lucky because out of six billion people I got to know Oishi. I mean, you could've easily become best-friends with anyone else, there are so many other students you could relate to, and yet… it turned out to be me."

The other was almost taken by surprise when Eiji wrapped his arms around him and buried his face in his chest, but then again this was Eiji, and he was a very touchy sort of person, so the vice captain didn't so much as jump at the sudden action. He was actually quite used to Eiji's spur of the moment embraces and he found himself smiling, patting the top of his friend's head as he agreed, "Yeah, I feel really lucky to know Eiji too."

They stayed like so for a little while longer until Eiji backed off and stretched his arms behind his head, eyes avoiding the other as he announced, "Okay, feels like time to head home now!"

Oishi could've imagined it, but he could've sworn he saw a light blush on the other's face as he turned to walk ahead. He let out a small chuckle, finally understanding the reason for Eiji's embrace, a failed attempt to hide his embarrassment in talking about something so deep. It was so like Eiji, hugging to express his feelings and covering up flustered expressions whenever he needed to.

"Hey, Oishi, hurry up! First you tell me to head back, but now you're just standing back there as if you don't want to leave! You have serious contradiction issues!" Eiji's loud call shook him out of his mini-reverie, and he apologized as he jogged quickly to his partner's side to which Eiji muttered a shy "geez".

As they headed on their way back, he and his doubles partner strolling in perfect sync shoulder to shoulder, Oishi decided that maybe he didn't so much dislike these evening walks after all.


End file.
